Humans

 Humans are driven by forces that are beyond our conscious comprehension. Let's say also these forces are not beyond our un-conscious "comprehension", or we would not be driven by them.

Genius thinkers find mathematical structure within the unfolding of these forces, just as genius poets find mysticism and convergence within them. Mysticism is simply the conscious recognition of the fact these forces exist, but also that they are partially hidden from us by the unconscious, which is "one with" these structures (the convergence). The mystery of art and science is that these forces emerge as structure and take form in the work of art and science. In these works is the recognition that we did not create and control the cosmos, rather it, whatever it is, created and controls us.

The fact biology exists at all, on at least one planet of zillions, Mother Earth, is perhaps the most profound and beautiful mystery.

It is a common hubris that we humans think we are "The Crown of Creation". However the unconscious "proves" that we are constrained by the limits of biology, the same as the rest of biology. Biology operates within a structure, a container, if you will, of balancing forces. The crown of creation hubris is that we are not constrained thusly.

How do we come to this departure from reality on a mass scale? That is a fascinating question, answered at least partly by psychology (the study of the unconscious). Ernst Becker's classic work "The Denial of Death" may go some way toward the answer to that question. Here's the wiki page on that book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death

and one quote from that page: "we are able to transcend the dilemma of mortality through heroism".

Within this mechanism of denial we also confuse progress and evolution. By progress I mean technological progress mostly, which has accelerated exponentially since the advent of fossil fuel use, and which has also concurrently accelerated human population growth exponentially. We find ourself in godlike control of nature, bending her to our will, but this I believe will prove to be a temporary delusion. We are already seeing the beginning of the end of that delusory state in the collapse of ecological health, and human health, and the mass destruction of biological species of all types.

So what then of the confusion of progress and evolution? Simply that evolution is biology, and proceeds at a snails pace. It is said that significant evolutionary changes take about 100,000 years.

As a species however we have the capacity for the evolution of knowledge to progress at a much faster pace than the evolution of biology. Theoretically we already have all the biological capacity needed for that to continue, and with it the "maturation" of our species. As it stands now we are proving to ourselves that as a species we do not yet have the maturity to handle technology. We are mesmerized by it, as it proceeds to destroy the ecology of the planet.

The answer to this, our most profound dilemma, is not the adolescent boy's fantasy of escape to another planet, or a newer and better technology, it is in the emotional and psychological maturation of our species.

We want to believe the problems caused by the mishandling of technology can be solved by newer better technologies. What is the one about the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

Doesn't seem to be working, does it.